The Importance of Being Earnest (Dramatised)

Ever since the first night at the St James' Theatre on 14 February 1895, The Importance of Being Earnest has been recognised as one of the world's finest comic dramas. Now Judi Dench as Lady Bracknell leads an outstanding cast in this superb new production of Wilde's masterpiece, mounted to celebrate the centenary of the first performance.

The Oscar Wilde Collection

Four classic comedies from one of the wittiest playwrights in Western literature: Lady Windermere's Fan, A Woman of No Importance, An Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Earnest, all featuring star-studded casts with the likes of Jacqueline Bisset, Miriam Margolyes, James Marsters, Alfred Molina, Roger Rees, Yeardley Smith, Eric Stoltz, and many more. Also includes a chilling dramatization of Wilde's sole novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog)

Here is one of the greatest English comic novels read by incontrovertible king of English comic audiobook readers, Martin Jarvis. Three men, worried about their health and in search of different experiences, set off 'up the river' in a boat. Jerome's delightful novel, dating from 1900, paints a vivid picture of innocent fun.

The Mayor of Casterbridge

Michael Henchard gets drunk at a fair and sells his wife and child for five guineas to a sailor. Henchard proves to be violent, selfish, greedy and crude, yet at the same time he is magnanimous and humble.

The Moonstone

T.S. Eliot described The Moonstone as "the first and the greatest English detective novel". The stone of the title is an enormous diamond plundered from an Indian shrine after the Siege of Seringapatam. Given to Miss Verinder on her 18th birthday, it mysteriously disappears that very night. Suspicion falls on three Indian jugglers who have been seen in the neighbourhood.

The Ballad of Reading Gaol

"The Ballad of Reading Gaol" is a poem by Oscar Wilde, written in exile, either in Berneval or Dieppe, France, after his release from Reading Gaol on or about the 19th of May 1897. During his imprisonment, a hanging took place. This had a profound effect on Wilde, inspiring the famous line "we all are guilty of killing the thing we love."

The Noise of Time

In May 1937, a man in his early 30s waits by the lift of a Leningrad apartment block. He waits all through the night, expecting to be taken away to the Big House. Any celebrity he has known in the previous decade is no use to him now, and few who are taken to the Big House ever return.

David Copperfield [Audible]

Between his work on the 2014 Audible Audiobook of the Year, Hamlet, Prince of Denmark: A Novel, and his performance of Classic Love Poems, narrator Richard Armitage (The Hobbit, Hannibal) has quickly become a listener favorite. Now, in this defining performance of Charles Dickens' classic David Copperfield, Armitage lends his unique voice and interpretation, truly inhabiting each character and bringing real energy to the life of one of Dickens' most famous characters.

Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde: In Aid of the Royal Theatrical Fund

Here is a collection of the Oscar Wilde's famous fairy tales, read by a cast of leading British actors. Additional narrators include Geoffrey Palmer O.B.E., Sir Donald Sinden, and Elaine Stritch. Music: 'Reverie De Sebastian' by Steve Davies.

A Man of Some Repute: A Very English Mystery, Book 1

Selchester Castle in 1953 sits quiet and near-empty, its corridors echoing with glories of the past. Or so it seems to intelligence officer Hugo Hawksworth, wounded on a secret mission and now reluctantly assuming an altogether less perilous role at Selchester.

The Affair of the Bloodstained Egg Cosy

Welcome to Alderley, a magnificent mansion in the heart of the West Country where a grand house party is taking place. The preparations have been made, the guests have been invited, and the staff are on hand. What could possibly go wrong? Let the entertainment begin. The theft of the diamond necklace and the antique pistols might all be explained, but the body in the lake - that really was a puzzle. 'Don't expect me to solve anything,' Inspector Wilkens announced modestly when he arrived to sort out the unpleasantness.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

This is the disturbing tale of the dual personality of Dr. Jekyll, a physician. A generous and philanthropic man, he is preoccupied with the problems of good and evil and with the possibility of separating them into distinct personalities. He develops a drug that transforms him into the demonic Mr. Hyde, in whose person he exhausts all the latent evil in his nature.

Vanity Fair

Set during the time of the Napoleonic Wars, this classic gives a satirical picture of a worldly society. The novel revolves around the exploits of the impoverished but beautiful and devious Becky Sharp.

Rebecca

Daphne du Maurier's young heroine meets the charming Maxim de Winter and despite her youth, they marry and go to Manderley, his home in Cornwall. There, the sinister housekeeper Mrs Danvers and the mystery she keeps alive of his first wife Rebecca - said to have drowned at sea - threatens to overwhelm the marriage.

The Affair of the Thirty Nine-Cufflinks

Understandably, Lord Burford had some misgivings about hosting another house party at Alderley, his beautiful country mansion. After all, the previous two could at best be described as disastrous, since a couple of their guests were bumped off during their stay on each occasion. But with family members travelling down for the funeral of an elderly relative, the Earl really had no choice but to offer them accommodation.

The Valley of Fear

The mystery begins with a coded warning of imminent danger, drawing the illustrious Sherlock Holmes and the faithful Dr Watson to a secluded country home. A trail of bewildering clues, including raincoats, dumbbells, and a missing wedding ring, leads to sleuthing in the finest Holmesian tradition - with a gripping back story of a cult that terrorized a valley in the American West.

Audible Editor Reviews

A well-narrated collection features five pieces of short fiction originally published in 1891. The anthology includes Wilde's best-known story, "The Canterville Ghost," a satiric and ultimately touching account of a brash American family frustrating a British ghost, and the enigmatic "Portrait of Mr. W. H.," in which research into the identity of the dedicatee of Shakespeare's sonnets leads to monomania and suicide. All the selections drip with irony, paradox, and iconoclasm while showing off the author's celebrated cleverness and wit. All three narrators well understand and communicate these qualities. In addition, they mercifully tone down the instances of excessive sentiment that could otherwise tumble them into bathos.

Publisher's Summary

A palmist's prediction leads to murder; an enigmatic woman's lifestyle is a mystery to be solved; a ghost tries to frighten the new tenants of his home; a man has discovered the dedicatee of Shakespeare's Sonnets; a millionaire wants to be painted as a pauper. Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories is a collection of fascinating short stories that are subversive as well as entertaining. Also included in this audiobook is 'The Birthday of the Infanta from A House of Pomegranates', in which an ugly dwarf loves a beautiful princess. How will his feelings fare in a cruel society?

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.